The Rant Podcast
A bi-weekly podcast focused on pulling back the curtain on the American higher education system and breaking down the people, the policies and the politics. The podcast host, Eloy Ortiz Oakley, is a known innovator and leader in higher education. The podcast will not pull any punches as it delves into tough questions about the culture, politics and policies of our higher education system.
The Rant Podcast
Supporting Student Success and Overcoming Setbacks with Tim Storey
What if setbacks could actually fuel your success? This week on The Rant Podcast, we kick off season three with the extraordinary Tim Storey, a global thought leader and life strategist known for his transformative impact. We unravel the complexities of the mental health crisis in higher education and provide valuable insights for college students navigating obstacles. Tim underscores the significance of community and partnership, warning against the pitfalls of isolation. Plus, we explore how educators can foster mutual growth by sharing their experiences and creating a collaborative learning environment.
Ever wondered how a mindset shift can change your life? Tim introduces us to his 'Miracle Mentality' philosophy and shares inspiring stories from his journey as a life coach to over 300 entertainers. Growing up in Compton, Tim's exposure to broader horizons ignited his growth mindset. His humanitarian efforts and unique connections with celebrities and athletes reveal a multifaceted role dedicated to positive global impact. Learn the criteria for choosing a qualified life coach and why honoring everyone's unique journey is essential.
Imagine overcoming setbacks with resilience and a supportive community. In our final discussion, Tim provides actionable strategies for students to balance recovery from past traumas with new opportunities. Addressing the mental health effects of the pandemic, we emphasize the importance of reconnecting with the world outside. For educators, Tim advocates creating a platform where students can voice their struggles and feel supported. We wrap up with a heartfelt conversation on living fully in the moment and appreciating the present, showcasing the profound influence of a positive mindset.
https://www.timstorey.com/
https://www.4leggedmedia.com/
Email: eloy@4leggedmedia.com
Hi, I'm Eloy Ortiz-Oakley and this is the Rant Podcast, a podcast that pulls back the curtain and breaks down the people, the policies and the politics of our higher education system. Welcome to season three of the Rant Podcast. I'm excited about what we have lined up for season three and we begin with a great guest to kick things off. He is a global celebrity and his name is Tim Story. Tim is an acclaimed pop culture thought leader. He's an author, a speaker, a life strategist and a humanitarian. He's been called the coach to the stars. In his recent book, the Miracle Mentality has Been Improving Lives Around the World by Changing Setbacks to comebacks. He is a frequent guest on national outlets like CNN, good Morning America and the Today Show. Tim and I sat down on the campus of the University of California, irvine, to talk about his book his amazing life. Talk about his book, his amazing life and how college students can overcome setbacks and develop a strong mindset to get through the challenges of the mental health crisis growing throughout higher education.
Speaker 1:But before we jump into this great interview, I want to thank our sponsors. Our sponsors that make the Rant podcast possible, sponsors that allow us to come back for season three and continue to develop great content. So I want to thank College Futures Foundation, arizona State University, rise Point, southern New Hampshire University, ellucian Re-Up Education, branded Alliant International University, open Classrooms and Education Strategy Group. These organizations center learners and they support growing access to great education throughout the country for more Americans. Thank you to our sponsors. Thank you for allowing us to continue the Rant podcast going and growing strong. You can learn more to our sponsors. Thank you for allowing us to continue the Rant Podcast going and growing strong. You can learn more about our sponsors by visiting the Rant Podcast website at fourleggedmediacom. I'll put the web address down in the comment section and learn more about their mission and what they do to support students throughout the country.
Speaker 1:Now, if you're joining us on this YouTube channel, don't forget to hit subscribe. This helps us grow our audience and ensures that you don't miss an episode of the Rant Podcast. Hit the notification bell so that you know when the latest podcast episode is posted. Continue to follow us on your favorite audio podcast platforms and leave us your comments. Let us know how we're doing, let us know about our content and if you have any ideas for great guests in the future. Also, feel free to send us an email. I'll put our email address in the comment section below. Thank you for joining us and continuing to follow the Rant podcast. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Tim Story on the campus of the University of California Irvine. Go Anteaters. Tim Story, great to see you. Welcome to the Rant Podcast. We're here on the campus of the University of California Irvine. Yes, great to see you, and.
Speaker 2:I think you got some degrees here, didn't you?
Speaker 1:I've got a few degrees here, yes, and it's a great campus and everyone should attend the University of California Irvine. Go Anteaters.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Well, thanks for being here on the rant Wonderful to see you and thanks for taking time out of your hugely busy schedule.
Speaker 2:You're very, very welcome, so I'm loving this discussion that we've been having, and we were talking a little bit about playing hurt, yes, and I think that, whether you're a student or faculty, there's times in life you wake up and things aren't perfect, but we were saying that that's OK, because we all go through recovery and discovery at the same time, bring their pain to wherever they're going.
Speaker 1:Students here at the University of California Irvine, like many campuses throughout the country, we see a lot of first-generation students, students who are still questioning whether they belong on a college campus. You know they've been through some really tough situations in their families, in their communities, so what advice do you have to them? How do they deal with their pain, but also tap into that pain when they show up on a college campus?
Speaker 2:I would say one of the main things is the power of partnership Is that when you come on to a campus, whether you live on the campus or outside of the campus, it's very, very important to look for community, because the community can really be a strength for someone. Isolation is just not good, and so, for any student that is coming in, you will go through ups and downs through that semester. The pressure of the workload that you have maybe you're working a job, but if you have people around you that are just strengthening you and strengthening your mindset and even doing positive things socially is a key. The power of partnership is essential.
Speaker 1:And what advice do you have to the faculty members, the administrators, who want to ensure that these individuals succeed on their college campuses? How should they think about supporting them but also sharing their own life experience?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think the beauty of life experience is that you know you've been through something and you have an understanding of it, and that you could share it with someone and it could really be a change in another person's life. I see that many times where maybe I'll talk to somebody that's struggling with addiction and I'll say well, in my case I've never had addiction to drugs or alcohol, but I come from it, from you know my father, or maybe they're dealing with anxiety or depression, and because I work in that field, as we talked about earlier, I can reference that, and so I think the beauty of the way I see the instructor, the mentor and also the person that is learning, the student in this case, is we're all people at different stages of our life and we can both grow from each other.
Speaker 2:And I think you've seen that obviously in your own life because you are an instructor and you learn from the students as well.
Speaker 1:I can't tell you how much I value just being around students, younger people I mean. I have my perspective that was sort of created based on my life experience, yeah, and particularly in the point in time that I grew up. But just hearing the life experience of my own kids, of young people that I interact with students, on college way that they view life is so much more expansive than the way I viewed life as a young person.
Speaker 1:The openness that they have to other people's life experience is much different than the way I was taught, so I think it's a great advantage for anybody.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I just want to say this for those that follow me that are new to what you are doing your scope is vast. You help oversee so many students all over the state of California and I appreciate what you're doing to help change people's lives.
Speaker 1:Well, it's great to have people like you are some of our previous guests who just give so much to improving the lives of young people. So let's talk a little bit about some of the fun stuff that you do. You are known as the coach to the stars. There's some clients of yours that I know many people would know people like Charlie Sheen, Robert Downey Jr. Even people like me would remember stars like Charlton Heston and you've interacted with all of those and many more. What is that experience like, and how did you actually get involved with all of these celebrities?
Speaker 2:Again, it was a forced gut moment. I was minding my own business speaking somewhere, and one of my friends, diane Cannon, who was married to Cary Grant. She said I'm going to do this gathering at my house in Brentwood.
Speaker 2:Just one of your friends, yeah, and the people that were there was kind of blowed my mind. Just one of your friends, yeah, and the people that were there was kind of blowed my mind. And so we started this group that we just wanted to grow. It just kept expanding, got so big and she says, tim, it's so big we got to take it somewhere. So we went to a hotel on Sunset Boulevard and the next thing, you know, you would look out, you'd see Leigh Iacocca there, you'd see Quincy Jones there, then you would see Jessica Simpson there when she was only 15. And you look over here and there was Jared Leto and there's Robert Downey Jr and there's Kanye West. So it wasn't who came, it was who didn't come. I mean, we literally drew the biggest stars in the world for about 25 years and I did it once a month.
Speaker 2:So I continue to life coach over 300 entertainers. I work with the best of the best and it's a privilege and, I think, one reason I get to do it is because I honor people.
Speaker 2:I know a lot of people quickly want to just say you know, everybody's just a person. You know what? Everybody is a person. But we should give honor to people, whether they're a school teacher, a janitor, the guy that delivers the mail or the lady that delivers the mail, honor them. And so, in the case of those that are entertainers, I've always honored and I enjoy doing what I do.
Speaker 1:So you talked about being a life coach. Yes, a lot of people are sort of looking for somebody to help them navigate life, bounce ideas off of. So in your mind, what is a life coach? And for somebody in the audience who's looking for help, how does one find a life coach?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that number one you should be careful with which life coach you choose, because in the past it was more like clergy it was your rabbi, your priest, your pastor, and then also it could be your therapist, your counselor, your psychiatrist. Life coaching started to become a little more popular in the 70s. I use my education of going to school for about seven years to learn what I've learned, to be able to instruct people. I do think that someone can go through a life coaching certification program and do well, but I think it takes time. But also it's important for the motives to be correct, right Cause we're, we're, we're working with people's lives, right.
Speaker 2:And so I think if you're looking for a life coach, make sure you do a background check on them and see, uh, what other clients have said and what life coaching really is is now and what's next, where therapy is more past and now. So life coaching is now and next. Therapy is past and now, and so the life coaching side is phenomenal. If you could get the right life coach, that could help you navigate things. Watch out, I mean, and that's the beauty of my life I get to life coach people that win Academy Awards and they say things like Tim.
Speaker 2:I'm thinking about quitting this really is one person that won Academy Award that I life coached within the last three that had said to me I'm thinking of quitting. It's not working the way I thought it was going to work and then to see them win the Academy Award is amazing. So I love seeing people's dreams come true and I love to see what's inside of them unfold.
Speaker 1:So your latest book, the Miracle Mentality yes, I've had a chance to look through it. A lot of great stuff in this book, but it's really about your experiences. It really starts out with your own personal experiences. So what inspired you to develop this concept that you call the miracle mentality, and how do people benefit from your experience, your story and this miracle mentality?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think. Number one, that people learn three primarily ways education, conversation and observation. So as a young guy in Compton, california, the education was good. I learned a lot and then later moved to a place called Whittier, california. Conversation was fair, it was mainly around classmates and my siblings. But observation changed my life. I went to Disneyland when I was six and I went with my cousin, esther, and some other people, and Esther was a little older than me, so we were able to run around to these different lands. They had this tomorrow land, frontier land, and when I saw and observed this life that was bigger than me, I thought, wow, there's a lot more possible than what I see, and so I see that as the miracle. Mentality of a miracle is something extraordinary, uncommon and not normal.
Speaker 1:How did your life experiences sort of position you to where you are right now? What do you carry forward from all those experiences?
Speaker 2:as a young person, I really believe that the fact that people continue to expose me to more than I was living is a key to what I've been able to accomplish in life, and what I mean by that is by people having me read books. I remember reading a book about the life of Michelangelo written by Irving Stone I was only in sixth grade and my mind just went to another place and then having conversations with people who did well, and then they would explain to me how they did well. I was only 12 years of age, so I think, again, going back to the education conversation, observation. Back to the education conversation observation put me into, as Carol Dweck talks about a growth mindset than a fixed mindset.
Speaker 1:So you are described as a life coach. You're a well-known speaker, you're an author. You interact with a lot of celebrities, helping them improve their lives. When people come up to you and they meet you for the first time, how do you describe what you do?
Speaker 2:I tell them I'm a humanitarian because I think that's first and foremost what I do. I went to seminary and then I got a doctorate in world religion and a master's in counseling therapy. Master's in counseling therapy. I've been to 81 countries of the world helping people in education, but also in humanitarian efforts of finding ways to aid people anywhere from food and water resources. So I am a humanitarian first resources. So I am a humanitarian first.
Speaker 2:The idea of the situation with working with athletes and then entertainers after that was almost like a Forrest Gump moment. I was just minding my own business, doing some inner city work in Florida. I was only 22. I created my own curriculum and some stars in the NFL had found out about this guy, tim Story, that was really making waves and helping inner cities. They approached me after watching me and one who was very well-known said I have money and you have a gift, let's go. And it was amazing because this particular gentleman who's very well-known. And it was amazing because this particular gentleman who's very well known connected me to eight all pros. I think probably six of them are in the Hall of Fame now and they just started to back me up financially.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:And it just took off from the age of 22.
Speaker 1:So you began your work, working in the inner cities. Yes, and obviously, growing up in Compton, you faced many of the same challenges that lots of people growing up in inner cities are faced with. Matter of fact, you grew up not too far away from where I grew up in Southeast LA, so people talk a lot about resilience and think about who actually survives those experiences. What role do you think resilience plays in overcoming setbacks you talk a lot about?
Speaker 2:setbacks.
Speaker 1:So what role does resilience play In your experience? How do people actually overcome those setbacks?
Speaker 2:Resilience is one of the biggest things in order to come back. So when you have a setback number one you have to become awake to get out of it. You have to wake up. Secondly, you have to take inventory and say how much am I injured from this setback that I just either created or happened to me? Thirdly, you have to partner with the right people, and that is a key.
Speaker 2:We definitely need people to partner with that can help us walk through our difficulties. Fourth would be the principles. We need the right principles to get to the right place. Out of the principles comes a plan, and then the next step is the resilience, and I think that the resilience for people like me and you is something that we learned by constantly having to get back up again. Right, and I remember I was talking to Magic Johnson one time. He was going through a difficult time in his life and he said to me Tim, people don't realize what people like us have been through already. Of course, we're going to get back up, so it was just a given because we have been through things before, but the resilience is such a key you got to bounce back.
Speaker 1:So we're here on a university campus University of California, irvine. Yes, and my background has been working on many college campuses, working with some of the most challenged individuals trying to get an opportunity through post-secondary education, and most of our audience is involved with that opportunity, giving people that opportunity. So many of the students that I've seen come through the doors of the institutions that I've worked at have had multiple setbacks. I mean, they grew up in a setback, as you've described in your book. What advice do you have to students who are approaching this opportunity of getting into a college, going to a university, trying to make it, given everything that they've experienced, all the obstacles that they've experienced thus far? What advice do you have for individuals like that to overcome those obstacles and most of them are internal, yes, self-create.
Speaker 2:So what I would say to them and I do work with a lot of students is we all go through recovery and discovery at the same time. Recovery is pain from our past and challenges from our past and then challenges from our present. So the recovery is the healing process that we go through. But if you're not careful, you'll get so caught up in the recovery zone of just working on your healing that you'll miss the discovery zone. The discovery is the unfolding of something, and this is a beautiful thing that you don't have to become perfect until things start to work for you. And it's important to note that we will always be slightly undone. I get to work with the best in the world I'm 81 countries deep. I get to meet with government officials, presidents, kings of countries, the greatest soccer players, football players in the world, entertainers Everybody's undone, and so if you're a 19-year-old and you're struggling with anxiety, you know what. You're slightly undone. But I got my own challenges, everybody's got their own challenges. So let's go to recovery and discovery at the same time.
Speaker 1:You obviously experienced the pandemic, like all of us, as an educator. We saw some really troubling signs leading into the pandemic. A lot of students were reporting mental health concerns yes, pressures that they were feeling. And then the pandemic hit and they were isolated. How do you talk to young people, young adults, who went through that and really see a much darker world today than they did before and are challenged to get through those mental health issues that they might have?
Speaker 2:I would agree with you in that that particular time of the pandemic and isolation really worked harder on people than people realize.
Speaker 1:I agree. It's easy to say I felt it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's easy to say. Like you know, we're not wearing masks as much, because some people still do.
Speaker 2:We're not six feet apart. But you're right, the trauma that it hit people with has been difficult for people to come out and play again, and a lot of people have gone inward. But here's what I find in life when you're doing well, you go outward. It's like little kids when they're happy, they want to go out and play. If they're going through something, they go inward. So I think that we have to challenge ourselves to go outward again, and that is to get back out into nature. To get back out hiking, walking on the beach, taking a drive, even if you're not in the mood. So even for a person like myself, where I do therapy with a lot of people one-on-one, it's a lot. I'm hearing a lot of things that are pretty overwhelming. I walk seven days a week and it's out of necessity. It's not just something like hey, I'm in the best mood to walk, right, I need to get outside and breathe, yeah.
Speaker 1:Many of the students that I've worked with over the years and that many of our colleges, universities who cater to students of color, to first generation students, I mean. They're bringing a lot of pain and personal experiences to the table when they first arrive and in many cases it's hard for them to get a hold of a therapist. Yeah, what advice do you have for people who are working with these young people college administrators, people who are trying to help them get through their education, faculty members who are trying to help them get through their education, faculty members what advice do you have for them in terms of how to best help these individuals who bring a lot of trauma forward into the classroom?
Speaker 2:I think the thing that they need the most is one of the most challenging things for people to do, and that is people need to be heard to do. And that is people need to be heard. And because so many of the mentors, teachers, instructors are so busy and they're pulled in so many different directions, sometimes it's difficult to take the time to hear the stories. So that's why I think that communities that we would form, where we could then have a form in which people feel like they can talk, they can dialogue, it's a safe place within that community. It's essential. It is essential Because I work a lot in the rehab business drug addiction, alcohol addiction and in the mental health space and the last thing a person needs, as I said prior, is isolation, but one of the main things they need is they need to be able to converse with someone who understands.
Speaker 1:Right. Well, I think that's key Someone who understands somebody, who understands the life experience of that young person. That's why there's such a huge emphasis. I know this is in some places across this country. It's a dirty word to talk about equity or diversity, but what I've found is, if I'm hiring faculty who come from communities, who come from places where they understand the life experience of those young people, they can relate a lot better.
Speaker 1:They have much greater empathy regarding the life experience that that person had and they're just better able to communicate. So obviously you have that life experience. So is that something that you use when you're talking to people in therapy, bringing forward your life experience?
Speaker 2:I really do type of clients that I work with is because I work with a lot of people who the world would see as doing extremely well and I don't really have some of that in common with. They were maybe raised in Beverly Hills or they were raised in the Hamptons. So many times these guys will say you know how we were raised, thinking I was raised in Beverly Hills or somewhere like the Hamptons. So many times these guys will say you know how we were raised, thinking I was raised in Beverly Hills or somewhere like the Hamptons or Palm Beach. But what I do understand is pain. I understand pain. My father passed away when I was only 10 in a car accident. He was going to get my mother food. He was going through a green light, a person ran a red light and my father passed. And now my mother had to raise five children working at a place called Winchell's Donut Shop.
Speaker 1:I know Winchell's well.
Speaker 2:Yes, and they still have good donuts. But you know that kind of impact when you're 10 years of age. That kind of impact for my mother and the other four kids because we had five total was so deep that I still carry the weight of part of it. But I'm okay with that because it's turning your test into a testimony.
Speaker 1:Right, that's how I see it. People in leadership positions who experience that pain. Yes, how do you talk to them about what to do with that pain? Should they just ignore the pain? Should they bring it forward into their life's work? How do you talk to people about actually tapping into that pain?
Speaker 2:That is a phenomenal question, because as a leader, you do not want to overshare either. So I think that there could be a college professor or leader who's maybe going to a divorce, Right, and you don't want to come to the whole class and say everything you're going through. Sometimes you have to speak in parables and only tell people parts of what you're going through and maybe just saying you know, I'm going through a bit of a difficult time. If you see that my mood is not the same, just know that I'm challenged. I think that's enough. Just to tell people you know, today is not a perfect day. I'll give an example In marriage counseling, when I'm counseling a couple that's married or living together, I'll say you know, you guys are going through something right now.
Speaker 2:Do me a favor, post it when you wake up in the morning and once you have your coffee or tea or whatever, give yourself about 30 minutes and then, either on the mirror in the bathroom or like on the refrigerator, post your mood on a scale of one to 10, how you're feeling. So maybe the lady will post like I'm at a five and then he'll post I'm at an eight. So you know what. Now we know how to deal with each other, because she's not feeling his eight and he's not feeling her five.
Speaker 1:I'm going to have to use that one.
Speaker 2:It's really a powerful thing. It really is, and I think the same as an instructor. Right, there's times like coming up. In just a couple days I'll speak to 4200 people. Uh, in these conferences, we do these conferences and we have anywhere from kevin hard and I just did one with a rod, alex rodriguez, right, you know, we travel around Stephen A Smith, the guy's from Shark Tank and the one I just did in Madison Square Garden.
Speaker 2:A guy came up to me and he said you seem quiet, you seem a little down. I said no, I'm not down, but I'm quiet. He goes how come you're quiet? And I said because I was up late last night helping this kid that's incarcerated. And I said so I kind of have that on my mind. And he said are you going to be okay to speak? And I said just watch, because listen after a while you get good at playing hurt. Right, but what I did, though it was nice of him to ask because he saw that, uh, I wasn't like laughing as much as normal, but I think it's good to sometimes tell somebody I'm, I'm at a five right, but I'm okay, that's great advice, so let me ask you a couple of last questions as we begin to wrap up.
Speaker 1:Yes so first of all, you know, in addition to being an author and writing your latest book, the Miracle Mentality, you also have sort of this network of people across the country. Yes, it's called World Shakers. Tell us about that, and how did you get this community started?
Speaker 2:Okay, so you don't know this, but I brag about you already. So to quite a few of my friends I've already bragged about you because you're smart and I like the way you think you care about people. So let's say I was talking to Roger Clemens like I just interviewed him two days ago who used to be this great baseball pitcher. Right, I may say to Roger oh, I was just with Deion Sanders the other day and we were working on something, and then I'd say, well, how well do you know Deion? Oh, I know Deion well enough, we play golf together.
Speaker 2:So what I started to do is realize, man, I know a lot of really cool guys from around the world. Why don't I put together a community where we meet on Zoom? So we have these Zoom calls four times a month every other Saturday, okay, and then every other Tuesday night, okay, and then every other tuesday night. It's 104 men. We've had 900 try to get in, but we've only chosen 104 because I'm looking for motives like why do you want to get in? And so it is an amazing community that we talk about family, we talk about mindset, obstacles, guys cry, grown men, and there's a lot of men that have done well, but there's also a lot of men that have done well and lost everything, and so it's not just a bougie crowd that I choose. I'm just looking for men who are wanting to guide their family and guard their family.
Speaker 1:So what's next for Tim Story? I mean, it seems like you're always stretching yourself, getting out there, trying to reach more people. What's on the horizon for Tim Story?
Speaker 2:I would say this that where I'm at right now is I'm just in the moment. When we had lunch recently I had so much fun. I'm in the moment. Obviously, our projects that are coming up that most people would think are pretty exciting, but I'm just in the moment. I'm fully present, fully feeling, fully alive. I'm so thankful that I know you. I'm excited about some projects we may do together with students, but right now I'm just in the moment and very thankful that I get to live the life that I'm living.
Speaker 1:Well, and I'm thankful that you took time out of your busy schedule to sit down with us, to be here on the Rant podcast, to share your story and to share the work that you're doing and specifically to talk about the miracle mentality. Thanks for being with us, Tim.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:All right everybody. Thanks for joining us here on the Rant podcast. It's been my pleasure to interview Tim Story His book is the Miracle Mentality and doing great work all across the country, so please check him out. Thanks for being with us, everybody. See you soon.
